


Deicide

by orphan_account



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Alternate Universe - X-Men Fusion, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Jewish Character, M/M, eventually
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-03-16
Updated: 2015-03-15
Packaged: 2018-03-18 02:17:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,232
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3552302
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>All organisms on this earth go through a process of steady evolution, of change. Occasionally, a species can make a leap in evolution, drastically changing over one generation, instead of a slow and steady transformation. Mutants, they're called by scientists, reporters, politicians, by the people not like them. They call themselves demigods.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Deicide

 

“All organisms on this earth, regardless of domain, kingdom, phylum, all the way up to species classification, go through a process of steady evolution, of change. Occasionally, scholars, a species can make a leap in evolution, drastically changing over one generation, instead of a slow and steady transformation. You can observe this on the handout I passed out at the beginning of class, with the diagrams of Darwin’s finches. Notice the beak shape becoming thicker and more hooked, after just one generation. Now, can one of you tell me a more recent instance of an evolutionary leap? One that is even more extreme?” A glance down at her class roster. “Mr. Jackson?”

The Mr. Jackson in question didn’t hear. He was busy doodling in the margins of his notes, not paying attention to anything his teacher, Ms. Athanasio, was saying. He only looked up when his friend tapped his shoulder with a talon. That will wake you right up.

“Oh, um,” he looked straight up at his teacher, shrinking underneath her stormy grey gaze. “I’m sorry, Ms. A, could you repeat the question?”

The class let out a brief spout of laughter, before their teacher’s harsh gaze quieted them down.

“I was asking, Percy, whether or not you could name a species that recently went through an evolutionary leap. A mutation so large that it has created an entire subspecies in the next generation.”

Percy was glad that was the question, most of the stuff in Mutant History generally went over his head, but this one was easy, since it had been pounded into their brains since day one at the school.

“That’s easy,” he said. “Us.”

“Hm,” Ms. Athanasio intoned. “Us?”

“Homo sapiens,” he clarified.

“Thank you, Mr. Jackson. At least you have one thing to take away from my class. Do any of my scholars know what this new species is called? Anyone besides Annabeth? No?”

Even though Annabeth was sitting behind Percy, he could practically feel her straining to put her arm up higher in the air.

“Oh, thank you, Mr. Zhang.” An audible sigh from Annabeth. “What is this species called?” Ms. A asked again.

“Homo superior,” Frank said, internally wincing at the break in his voice. He didn’t really like speaking in front of class, and with every student in the room staring at him, it seemed his skin flushed even more red than it already was, if that were possible. He fastened his eyes to the ground.

“Good, good. Can anyone give me an example of a mutation in this new species? Not your own, please, recall some of your readings of common mutations.”

A few hands went up.

“Telekinesis!”

“Teleportation.”

“Shapeshifting!”

“Geokinesis?”

“I said ones that were not your own, Ms. Levesque.”

“Sorry,” she called.

“Alright,” Ms. Athanasio cut off her students. “That’s good enough. Some of you did your summer reading, but the rest of you need to get cracking on that, we’re having a quiz on the selections next week. It is the first day of school, so why don’t we play an icebreaker game?”

That received a mixed response from the class. There were some whoops, some groans, and the sound of one student knocking their head against their desk.

“I know,” their teacher said. “But we have new faces this year, and I may need a refresher for some of you. So pick up your desks, and put them into a circle.”

No one really followed the order to pick up the desks, and instead pushed and dragged them against the hardwood floor of the old classroom, which had Ms. Athanasio’s face marred by a scowl. After much scuffling, squeaking, and muffled exclamations of pain as backsides were hit with wooden desks, there was a malformed circle in the Mutant History classroom.

“I want you all to say your name, and what your mutation is. Most of yours were in your summer reading selections, so this is another test. You can also share if there was anything interesting you did this summer. There’s no need to be shy, Frank, stop playing with your jacket strings. This is generally a junior class, but I know there are some of you who aren’t in the eleventh grade, so if that is you, please say what grade you’re in.” Ms. A leaned against her desk. “Annabeth, you may start.”

“Okay,” Annabeth said. This was absolutely unnecessary, since everyone knew who Annabeth was. It was hard to miss her. “I’m Annabeth Chase, and my mutation is Wing Manifestation.” As if people couldn’t already tell. Her feathered wings, which were nicely folded up at the moment, were twenty feet in length. They were brown and speckled, like a barn owl. She also had other birdlike features: nails like talons, and the odd feather growing out of her skin. There was some debate as to whether or not she could hawk up balls of fur and bone like other owls. “The only thing I did this summer was read.”

It was decided that the direction of introductions would go clockwise. Next was Percy.

“I’m Percy,” he said. “I can control water, or whatever.” He sighed, obviously thinking this was a pretty useless thing to do. He ran a hand through his black hair. When he was explaining his power, he left out the part where he could breathe underwater, a sort of human amphibian. “This summer, I played a lot of video games. Oh, and I skateboarded a bit.”

“Piper McLean. I’m just really good at persuading people.” She had a sort of power of mental manipulation; she could say things to people and they would do them. This caused all sorts of trouble for her, until she was brought to the school to help regulate her powers. There was also the fact that Piper was extremely gorgeous, but who knows if that was a mutation or just really good genes.

“I don’t know how I could possibly follow up on that one,” said the boy next to her. You could practically hear the grin in his voice. “I guess I’ll have to try. I’m Leo Valdez, I can do this,” he made a waving gesture with his hand, and a burst of fire roared to life in his palm, touching his skin, but not burning him. “This summer, I worked in my mom’s machine shop and tried not to die from heat stroke.”

“Are we showing everyone our powers now? Ms. Athanasio, can I strike Leo down with lightning?”

“No,” Ms. A said, over the sound of Leo’s protesting.

“Oh well. Hi, I’m Jason. I can control the weather. That’s about it. I didn’t do anything this summer.”

“My name is Reyna. I’m strong, extraordinarily so. I also have these,” she said, holding up her hands. She flexed her fingers and claws grew where her fingernails should have been.

“Uh, hi, I’m Frank Zhang. I can shapeshift… also I’m red, in case no one noticed.” He got a few laughs for that one. His skin was bright red, like a maraschino cherry. He was also a really big guy, almost 6’2” at the age of sixteen, and fat. “Its just animals, though. Not people. This summer, I helped my grandmother manage our stores. Like, places where you buy things. Not acorn stores, or whatever. Um, we have a lot of them. Yeah.” He looked down at his feet.

“I’m Hazel,” the next girl in the circle said. She was small, but her natural hair that surrounded her head like a corona made her seem a bit bigger. “Hazel Levesque. Lay-veck. Make sure you pronounce that correctly. I’m a geokinetic, so I can control the ground, like, dirt and rocks and stuff. I’m a freshman.”

“Nico. I can teleport. I’m a sophomore.” This one was a new face. The boy had most of his skin covered with dark clothing, even though school had just gotten in session, and it was August, and it was hot. What wasn’t covered was pallid grey, with faint splotches of purple and pink and green, almost as if the flesh was dead.

The rest of the circle went by. There was a boy who, underneath his baggy jeans, apparently had goat legs, to go along with the horns curving around his head. A guy who glowed, as if the sun was constantly shining on him. There was a girl with auburn curly hair, who was clairvoyant. A senior girl who could control plants. Another whose hair and eyes were ever changing color. One whose singing could heal. Stuff like that.

Right as class was about to end, a young man with sandy blond hair walked into the room, pushing a cart of textbooks in front of him.

“Hi, Ms. Athanasio. Where do you want these?”

“Hello, Luke. Just put them right there, against the wall. How is your first day of work?”

“Its alright,” he said. He turned towards the class, and waved, and everyone got a good look at a wide, jagged scar that ran down the left side of his face. He didn’t really have any sign of physical mutation, though. “Hi, class. Hi, Annabeth.”

Various greetings were said, or in some cases, shouted. Luke’s marred face was a common one at the school, he had been a student there for almost seven years, and was now working in what functioned as the front office. He was a friendly guy, and was on good terms with most of the people in the school, with the exclusion of the little kids who had just gotten there. And within a few days, he was good with them as well.

“You should be getting back to your desk, Luke,” Ms. A said. “You don’t want to be crushed by some students heading to second period.”

Right as she said that, the bell signalling the end of the period rang, and everyone scrambled out of their seats, grabbing their book bags to head to their next class.

“Could you stay in here for a minute, Mr. di Angelo?” Ms. Athanasio asked, as everyone started heading through the door.

Mr. di Angelo, Nico, walked up to her desk.

“Is there something you need?” he asked.

“Not in particular,” his teacher said. “I’m just aware that you have a special type of mutation. I want you to know that if you need anyone to talk about it with, any of the faculty would be happy to speak with you. We want to be sure that your education here at the Academy is as comfortable as possible.”

“Oh. Alright. Thank you.”

“Its not a problem. Now go on, you wouldn’t want to be late for your second class.”

As Ms. A delivered her speech that just did even more to alienate Nico, Jason and Leo were walking to their second period together. Leo had a math class, and Jason was heading to a group counseling session. They were an hour of time where people could just sit and talk about their mutations, speaking about them with the only people who understood. It was a good idea in concept, but what teenager wanted to talk about all their troubles in front of nine of their peers, people who had known you since your mutation kicked in, sometime in elementary school? It wasn’t fun.

“That’s gonna be an awful class, huh? I almost fell asleep listening to Minerva talk.” Leo pretended to fall asleep on Jason’s shoulder.

“Who is Minerva?” Jason asked.

“Ms. Athanasio, duh.”

“Oh. How do you know her first name?”

“I have my ways. Also, it was in the schedule they gave us yesterday.”

“I barely looked at that thing,” Jason said.

“Yeah, whatever. So did I tell you I’m rooming with Zhang this year? We are about to party so hard.”

Jason laughed. “I would pay money to see Frank party hard.”

“It would be an interesting thing to see, that’s for sure. You never told me who you were rooming with. Is it Percy again?”

“Nope. He's rooming with Grover. Did you see that new guy in Mutant History today?”

“The kid who looked like he died sometime last week?”

“Yeah, him. He’s my roomie.”

“No way. He’s a zombie, Jason! He’s going to eat your brains.”

“Doubtful. That’s like saying you’re going to roast Zhang during a barbeque.”

“Don’t give me ideas, I might just follow up on that.”

“You are terrible.”

Leo spread his hands. “You got me!” He punched Jason in the arm. “Here’s my stop, I’ll see you at lunch.”

“Okay, have fun.”

Jason walked the rest of his way to the counseling group by himself, nodding at friends he passed in the hallway. Once he got to Chiron’s office, he sat near the edge of the semicircle that had been set around the ornate desk.

When nine of the ten chairs were full, Chiron rolled his wheelchair out from behind his desk, to be closer to the kids.

“I guess we’ll start without our last student,” he said, just as the student in question barged through the door.

It was Nico, who was huffing and puffing in his heavy clothing. It looked like he had run all the way to the office.

“Or not,” one of the girls in the room said. Jason was pretty sure her name was Lou Ellen. She was an illusionist of some sort; she could make you see what she wanted you to see.

“Hi, sorry I’m late,” he said. “I was talking to Ms. Athanasio, and I got lost, like, twice, and I--”

“Its fine,” Chiron said. “Take a seat next to Mr. Grace.”

Nico turned his head, looking at the only empty seat in the room, next to a smiling and waving blond.

“You,” Nico said.

Jason patted the seat next to him, welcoming Nico. Nico grumbled a bit and sat down.

Jason and Nico had not gotten off on the right foot the previous day, when they had been moving in and getting situated that night.

“Hey,” Jason had greeted him. If he was shocked by Nico’s marbled complexion, or by the bags under his eyes, or the distinct purple-y color of his fingernails, he didn’t show it. “I’m Jason.”

“Nico.”

Nico set his bag on the floor, and immediately started unpacking it.

Jason had already packed earlier that day. Nico must have lived far away, to just be getting to school and unpacking his things.

“Is this your first year here at the Academy?” Jason asked, after Nico had gotten done with his packing, for the most part at least. He had tried to start up conversation earlier, but Nico hadn't responded. Maybe he didn't hear.

“Yes.”

“Well, welcome! I’ve been here for almost eleven years, so if you need any help I’m--”

“Hey,” Nico said. “I’m tired. I’m going to go to bed.”

And then he threw himself down onto the freshly made bed, still in all his clothes. That was the end of their conversation for the night.

That was when Jason learned of Nico’s odd sleeping habits. Jason noted earlier that Nico had looked, well, dead. It almost wasn’t a surprise when something approaching rigor mortis happened to Nico as he finally fell asleep, a few hours later. Jason figured out that he wasn’t sleeping eventually, just ignoring him, but he didn’t want to make the guy uncomfortable by calling him out.

The rigor mortis, or whatever it was, started slowly. Jason couldn’t fall asleep, not after a summer of sleeping in his own bed, so he just laid there, looking up at the ceiling, until something moving out of the corner of his eye caught his attention.

Slowly, ever so slowly, Nico started sitting up. His eyes were closed, and his breathing was slow, but his body was stiff and upright, and his arms locked in an odd position.

Jason guessed it wasn’t any weirder than Frank turning into animals when he slept. Or the fact that he sometimes floated in his sleep, unconsciously manipulating the air currents in the room to support him. This whole sitting up thing was just a sort of cool quirk he had just discovered in his closed off roommate. More creepy than cool, but at least it was something.

Without even noticing it, sometime during the night, he fell asleep.

When he woke up in the morning, Nico was laying back down, but his chest wasn’t moving with the regular motion of breathing. In fact, he wasn’t moving at all. When Jason noticed this, he clambered out of bed, taking a big step that sent him across the dorm room to Nico’s bed. He felt for Nico’s wrist, which was cold, no pulse beating through it.

“Oh, my god,” Jason said. He kept holding Nico’s wrist, thinking of what to do next. At least, until he heard:

“What the hell are you doing?” It was Nico’s voice. Nico was glaring, a little blearily, at Jason, his eyes still ringed in purple, even after a good night’s sleep.

“Uh, checking for a pulse,” Jason said. He dropped Nico’s wrist. “You weren’t breathing. Or moving.”

Nico sat up. “There is one. A pulse, I mean. And I was. Just slowly. That happens sometimes. Please don’t touch me.”

“Yeah, okay--”

“Just because we’re roommates doesn’t mean we’re friends.”

“Um, okay. Never said we were.”

Nico swung his legs out of bed, stifling a yawn. He still had a glare fixed on Jason.

He could pick up a vibe. Jason grabbed his things for taking a shower: soap, shampoo, a towel.

By the time he had showered and toweled off, Nico was gone from the room.

Its not like Nico could ignore him forever, though, since it seemed like Jason had more than a few classes with him. He didn’t try to talk to Nico in Mutant History, figuring that he would not want to.

But really, two classes together in a row? It was fate. Jason had to talk to the guy. If he was going to room with him for nine, ten months, he wanted to befriend the guy. Or at least be on speaking terms, without Nico being angry at him. Jason wasn’t sure whether or not he wanted a guy like Nico mad at him. He was a little scary. You could obviously tell he had a physical mutation, but it was a mystery as to whether there was anything else to him. Maybe he would find out in this therapy session.

In therapy sessions, Chiron liked to take the Socratic approach, and just let the students guide the discussion. Lou Ellen kicked off the conversation by talking about her closeted life. Since she had no physical mutation, she could hide the fact that she was a little more than human. It was hard. Jason could relate. His stepmother still didn't know that he was a mutant, and it was difficult to conceal sometimes.

Jason looked over at the boy sitting next to him. He wondered how Nico went about his life, with such an obvious mutation. You can't really walk around looking like a dead man. Jason thought he might fit in great with the extras in The Walking Dead.

Lou Ellen had stopped talking, and everyone in the room sat quietly. Chiron turning the pages of a book was the only noise, until Jason spoke up.

"So we've got a new person in class today," he looked over at Nico, who was all tense and stiff suddenly, as if he was asleep again. "Should we all introduce ourselves?"

Nico kept his mouth shut, but everyone else spoke up. A few kids were in his Mutant History class. Will Solace, Grover Underwood, Katie Gardner, Silena Beauregard. There was also a Clarisse La Rue, a big girl who was extraordinarily strong. Two brothers who could move quicker than the eye could keep up. And a kid named Malcolm who could remember anything. And of course, there was Jason.

Once everyone said their names, they looked at Nico, waiting for him to say his. Jason was beaming at him. Ass. That boy, Will, was also beaming, but that was mostly because he was always beaming.

"I'm Nico," he said.

Lou Ellen was getting bored, and was shifting her appearance quickly. Cat eyes, green eyebrows. One of the Stoll brothers snorted when she made her face look just like Chiron's. "Go on," she said, through a mouth that was partially shrouded by Chiron's scruffy ginger facial hair.

"What else do you want to know?" Nico asked her.

Will ran a hand through his wavy blond hair, and looked around the room. "What's your favorite color?" He shrugged, casting a shine over Silena, who was sitting next to him. Her color shifting hair glinted under the direct light.

"Black," Nico said.

"I was sort of expecting that answer," Will said.

Silena's hair was suddenly a jet black. "Like this?"

"Sure," Nico said.

Satisfied that they had gotten a bit of an answer out of Nico, the discussion started again. Will was talking about some other mutation that had manifested recently, some kind of healing power. It was interesting and all, but Jason had more pressing matters to focus on. Pressing matters wearing an overlarge bomber jacket and gloves, despite the 90 degree weather.

Jason turned to Nico.

"Black, huh?"

Nico looked at Jason, who was not meeting his eyes. He was instead picking at a loose string that was hanging off the frayed edges of his jorts. He tried not to notice the tanned thighs that the cut-off jean shorts did not cover enough of.

"Who would have guessed?" Nico asked.

"Not me," Jason said. "I was thinking it could be chartreuse."

"Oh yeah," Nico nodded. "Or maybe fuschia."

"Periwinkle?"

Nico took his eyes off of Jason's dark, toned thighs. Not that he had been trying to look away for a couple of seconds.

His eyes were a light blue, like the sky, which made sense, considering his mutation. They seemed even brighter from the gold wire-frames he had on. He must have been out in the sun a lot during the summer, because his skin was dark, and his hair was a light, almost platinum blond. His face was nice to look at, something you would see in a magazine. That sense of perfection was slightly altered by a white scar that curved down his lip. And when he opened his mouth, his bottom teeth were a little crooked. Nico tried not to think of his own imperfections in comparison to him.

"Pastels aren't really my thing," Nico finally said.

The white scar twitched, and was stretched out by a smile.

"You don't hate me!" Jason's face looked like Nico's on the first night of Hanukkah.

Dark eyebrows knitted together. "What makes you say that?"

Jason took on a thoughtful expression. "I can just tell."

"Uh huh."

"Does this 'uh huh' mean you hate me?"

Nico thought for a second. "No."

Jason leaned back into his chair, and Nico watched his easy smile.

 

* * *

 

They ended up walking to lunch together. Jason had decided that 'I don't hate you' meant 'Let's be friends!'

After getting their food in the cafeteria, he led Nico to the fountain that was on the great lawn of the school. Most of his friends were already there. Annabeth was stretching out her wings. Leo was cooking something in a wad of foil clutched in his fiery hand. Frank was talking to Percy, who was a little distracted, directing water to hit Grover's back. Reyna was busy peeling an orange. Piper was idly braiding Reyna's long, glossy hair. Hazel and Rachel were sitting a little ways off, both with sketchbooks in their laps. They were probably looking at each other's work that was done over the summer. Everyone's book bags were strewn around, not really congregated in one spot like the kids were.

Jason sat on the rim of the fountain, under the shadow of Annabeth's wings. Nico joined him.

Percy grinned when he saw Jason, and leaned over Frank's lap to give him a fist bump. Then, he seemed to decide that Frank's lap was a comfortable place to be, swinging his legs to rest on Frank's thighs. His head went against the cold marble of the fountain. Grover dumped a handful of water on his face.

Ignoring Percy's sputtering, which was totally unnecessary, since he could easily breathe through the water, Frank turned his red face toward Jason.

"Hi, Jason." He held out his hand across Jason's lap, offering it to Nico. "I'm Frank Zhang."

Nico shook Frank's hand with his own gloved hand. If Frank thought it was strange that Nico was wearing gloves in all this heat, he didn't comment on it. Jason guessed that when your skin was the color of a fire engine, little things like overdressing and skin marbling didn't bother you.

"Nico di Angelo," he said. "Nice to meet you."

Jason watched Nico interact with his friends. He bit into the apple he got with his lunch, and listened as he chewed.

Annabeth was asking where Nico was from.

"Venice," Nico told her.

"Woah," Percy said, "Like in Italy?"

"Yup. I've lived in America for about four years."

"Why did you move?" Frank asked.

Nico paused. "My mutation manifested." Everyone winced in sympathy. "My mom contacted my dad, who took me in."

"Well, its good that you have a safe place now," Annabeth told him. "We're all safe here. We don't have to hide anymore."

Nico looked at Annabeth. Her wings, her grey eyes wide. He pursed his lips.

"Safe," he said. "Unless you look like me."

None of them knew how to respond to that. Because it was true. Even in a place where mutants could be free, Nico was a little too strange. Nico looked at Jason, who looked like he had just eaten a lemon. In sympathy or disgust, it was hard to tell. Nico guessed it was time for him to go. "Thank for inviting me to sit with your friends, Jason."

"No problem, man." Jason put a hand on Nico's shoulder, which he brushed off. Nico stood up. "See you later?"

Nico looked around at the group of friends. "Yeah. Bye."

As soon as he was out earshot, Percy strained forward to bat one of Jason's legs with his Vans-clad foot.

"What's his problem?"

Leo was snacking on the popcorn he had been apparently cooking in the foil. He threw a piece of it at Jason, who stopped it, leaving it hovering in midair. "Yeah, Jayce," he said. "What's Death Boy's problem?"

Jason sent the piece of popcorn zooming back at Leo with a twitch of his finger. "Give him a break, Valdez."

"Not cool," Piper told Leo.

Leo listened to his best friend, but not before he threw another piece of popcorn in her direction.

Reyna played with the end of her newfound braid. "Leo, what would you act like if you had such an obvious mutation? Put yourself in his shoes."

Jason beamed at his friends' kind words. But really, sometimes Leo just didn't know when to draw the line between teasing and just being mean.

"Maybe I should find him," Jason suggested. "I made him sit with us, after all."

"Nah," Percy told him. "Let him blow off steam for a while. You room with him, yeah?" Jason nodded. "Just talk to him tonight, then."

By that time, Hazel and Rachel had made their way over to the fountain. Both of their shirts had a good bit of charcoal on them.

Hazel pushed Percy's legs off of Frank's lap and squeezed in between the two boys. Rachel sat next to Reyna.

Hazel stole a soggy cafeteria tater tot off of Frank's tray. "I hope you were being nice to Nico," she chided.

She threw a tater tot at Jason's head. He let the greasy projectile hit her this time.

"I was," Percy told her.

"Leo wasn't," Frank added.

Leo stuck his tongue out at Frank.

"I wasn't mean directly to him," Leo protested. "It was after he left!"

Hazel directed a clod of dirt to fall onto Leo's head.

 

* * *

 

 

He was too skinny.

The first day of classes was over, and usually Jason would be playing basketball outside with Percy, or trying to convince Leo to give him part of his candy bar stash. But there were other things to do that day.

Nico was wearing a black tee shirt and soft looking boxer shorts. Without his layers, he was too skinny. The clothes hung off of him like he was a coat hanger. He was playing something on a Nintendo 3DS, and didn't even look up when Jason walked through the door.

Jason set his bookbag on the floor and sat down in the chair that went with his desk, beneath the window.

Nico didn't say anything when he walked in, so Jason pulled out some of the reading Ms. Athanasio had assigned. Reading isn't exactly what happened, though. He saw the words, but didn't process them. He was distracted.

Jason huffed out a breath, and was about to say something, until--

"Save it."

It was said over the chiptune battle music Jason had been listening to for about an hour.

"What?" Jason asked him.

Nico slid down the volume switch on the side of his 3DS and looked at Jason for the first time that night. His eyes were the only part of him that looked alive; they were a rich and dark brown, like polished ebony or a cup of black coffee. For such dark eyes, they still managed to stay bright. They brought life to a dead face.

"I know you were about to apologize," Nico said. He tapped the bottom screen of his console, probably picking some decimating move. "And I want you to save it."

"How did you know I was going to apologize?"

"You're predictable," Nico said. "You're the perfect American boy."

"And what are you?"

"That's obvious," Nico drawled. "I'm the token foreign friend."

"You're our hardcore alternative friend," Jason amended. "Do you like Green Day?"

Nico scoffed. "That's not hardcore, dude."

“I tried to think of all the bands my sister listens to, and that’s the only one I could think of.”

“Green Day?”

“Yes,” Jason said. “Hang on, I’ll try to think of another band that’s more suited to your snooty metalhead tastes.”

There’s a noise. Its unexpected, and its Nico laughing. “Whoever said I liked metal?”

Jason thought for a second. “No one.”

Nico sat on his bed, a small smile on his face as he played on his DS. “So, you have a sister?”

“Yeah, Thalia. She’s in her twenties.”

“Is she…?”

“Uh, yeah. She can hide it pretty well, though. She went here when she was my age.”

“Huh.”

“Yep.”

Then it seems like the two boys wouldn’t speak for the rest of the night. That is, until Jason remembered something.

“Dude, do you listen to Alestorm?”

And so Jason got his second bout of laughter from Nico for the night. It was more than a snigger though: it was full on, belly aching laughter. After a minute or so, Nico calmed down. His breathing is labored through his purple-tinged lips. He shoots a grin at Jason.

“Pirate metal?”

Both of the boys laughed.

Perhaps they would get along fine.

 

 


End file.
